Pregnant women can safely take inhaled steroids for asthma

Main Category: Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 08 Mar 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Pregnant women who have asthma do no have to worry about affecting the growth of their babies if they use inhaled steroids, this is according to a new study.

According to the researchers, the baby is in more danger of oxygen deprivation from an asthmatic mother than he/she is by the inhaled steroid the mother takes.

The researchers looked at 396 pregnant women who took inhaled steroids. It did not have an effect on the growth of the fetus. There was no effect on the baby's birth weight either.

They also found that inhaled steroids are safer for pregnant women to take than steroid pills. Oral steroids have been shown to slow the fetus' growth. Oral steroids are also used to treat asthma.

The study was carried out at the Kaiser-Permanente Medical Center in San Diego. The team leader was Michael Schatz.

Schatz said 'Now, women don't have to make a choice between their health and the health of the baby. They don't have to think that making that choice is going to somehow harm the baby.'

You can read about the study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

7% of pregnant women get asthma to some degree. Some of these women use inhaled steroids. The National Asthma Education and Prevention Program, (part of the Department of Health and Human Services), supports the use of steroids in pregnant women with serious asthma.

The worry asthmatic women have when they are pregnant is that the fetus is deprived of oxygen. This can sometimes lead to retardation, premature birth, low birth weight and even stillbirth.